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Tim Lane
Could schools in Southeast Texas be “ripe” for an incident like the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde that killed 19 elementary students and two teachers? One local school official feels it could happen, and his district is taking action to eliminate that threat and improve school safety at its school campuses.
During the July 21 meeting of the Press Club of Southeast Texas, Lumberton ISD Superintendent Dr. Tony Tipton said, due to the area’s gun culture, “Lumberton and Southeast Texas is ripe for an incident.”
“That is why we are doing what we’re doing, because there is a chance it could happen to us,” he said. “We don’t have our heads in the sand.”
In order to improve the safety culture of its campuses, one of the initial steps Lumberton ISD took was hiring Tim Lane as its first-ever Director for Safety, Security and Student Services for Lumberton ISD. Lane spent his entire law enforcement career with the State of Arizona Highway Patrol Division with the Department of Public Safety in many capacities, and he was the guest speaker at the meeting.
Lane said school safety is an emotional topic, especially after the Uvalde shooting.
“It kind of shook the foundation that we’re on, obviously, to see those events like that happen,” he said. “We have a lot going on as far as preparing our school district for the kids. We have a tremendous program in place and we’re working with Gov. Greg Abbott, TEA (Texas Education Agency) and the Texas State School Safety Center to make sure we abide by the governor’s mandates for preparing our schools for opening day.”
According to TEA, a list of requirements for schools, including exterior door safety audits and mandatory drills, which districts must now take action on before the fall semester, begins on Aug. 11 for Lumberton ISD. Lane said one of the TEA mandates is checking all the doors in the district.
“I go out and put hands on every single door, then we take an inventory of the doors,” he said. “While we’re doing that, with my experience in threat assessment, response and mitigation, it allows me to get out there and inside the schools to look and make sure there are no obstacles or reason of concern, that all the doors work, and we know where they’re at. And, we’ve come up with some pretty innovative strategies with some of our countermeasures.”
When asked about the logistics of checking every school door at every campus, Lane said, “Every school in our district has a principal, assistant principal and leadership team with teachers and staff. We have a large team, and we’re all working together.”
Tipton added that the district will make sure every door is labeled, “So, when a first responder comes in, they can describe exactly where they went in and exactly where they are going.”
Lane said the unique numbering system of the doors “tells a story.”
“It’s not just 10, 12, or 15. It’s a number and a letter designator saying what side of the building it’s on,” he explained. “If I say a number, there’s only one door number like that in our district. And first responders, staff and myself can respond to that door quicker. What it’s about is reducing that timeline and keeping the bad guy out. That gives law enforcement more time – seconds, a minute or maybe two, three or four minutes – to get to the scene if we can delay that intruder.”
Lane said it would also help first responders coming for a medical emergency, and he noted that the Lumberton Police Department provides two well-trained School Resource Officers (SRO) to the district.
“Those SROs are very familiar with our numbering system,” he said. “If any incident happens, they will be on their radios telling other responders where to come.”
Lane said the numbering system for the doors is in progress but will be completed by the first day of school.
Tipton said they are establishing a program where every single exterior door in LISD will be touched and tested once a week during the entire school year while students are in the building.
“If TEA wants us to do it, we’re going to do it to the 10th degree,” he said. “That will be a team effort between Tim and the campus, and whoever has that task.”
Lane noted that plans are in place to respond to various scenarios. For example, if there was a house fire near one of the campuses, the district would need to relocate the students to another area. He said the district has a plan that provides the staff training and opportunities so they know their roles and responsibilities in the event they have to move the population to another area.
Lane said communication is a big part of the district’s plan, remarking that he’s seen other incidents across the U.S. where communication had “broken down.” He said if there’s an incident, he, the superintendent, or the high school principal can take command of the scene.
“It’s the first authority on the scene who will be the incident commander and that person will remain the incident commander until that role is taken away from him or transferred to someone else,” Tipton agreed.
“Training, preparation, communication and the district’s ability to handle an incident – off and on campus – are key,” Lane noted.
When asked how he’s making schools safer for children and also creating an environment that students feel comfortable and flourish, Lane said, “I don’t want a child walking into school thinking that he or she is in prison. There are things we can do, as far as visual technology, that they don’t see. We want them to come in and feel great about the schools.”
Tipton added that by controlling of the entrances, “We can keep the bad guys out.”
“We have a system for letting the people we want in,” he said. “Who do we want in our schools? We want our parents, our grandparents, our volunteers and our first responders. We don’t run prisons; we run schools. They are community schools that are owned by the community and are run by taxpayer dollars.”
“Even though education is our business, safety has to be our priority,” Tipton said. “I want those kiddos to go home just like they came to us.”
Tipton said the district has multiple countermeasures in place, including the Guardian Program for certain staff members who are trained and certified to carry weapons. He stated that eight Guardian members have trained aside local law enforcement at the high school.
“We also do training inside our buildings with local law enforcement,” Tipton said. “We learned their tactics, and they learned who we were. We know what they can do. They know what to expect from us and we know what to expect from them if there was ever a call or disaster. If there’s a first person on the scene, one of our Guardians can join up with law enforcement to go direct to threat.”
He added that every member of the Guardian Program has taken an oath to “take out the threat.”
“We’re going directly to the threat and take out the threat,” said Tipton. “We are going to put ourselves in danger. If the bad guy is shooting at us where we can get down and duck, he won’t be shooting at our kids. That’s going to be the difference between Uvalde and Lumberton ISD. We are going to take care of the situation as soon as we can.”
Tipton said if an incident happens in his district with more than 100 staff members and 1,200 students, instead of thousands of parents and family members showing up at the scene, they will start training and giving out information to parents.
“So, they can understand what to expect if something happens, and what they can and cannot do, and will and will not be allowed to do,” he said.
Lane said the district is not only looking at the present, but is also looking toward the future. He noted that LISD is hosting a pair of Safety and Security Town Hall meetings in September and January. The district is planning to host the first-ever School Safety and Security Summit for Texas in June 2023.
“We are ready to make sure our kids have a great year in an absolute safe environment,” added Lane.